Richard Shakeshaft

Thursday, 14 May 2020

When I was at school, David Dew was a member of English Department, and he was also a stalwart member of the school's choirs and of the CCF. His particular musical passion was the music of the Victorian era, and he tried - valiantly - to introduce me to some of the more obscure composers of the era. While I failed to appreciate them to the extent he did, I would acknowledge that he did make me more aware of the merit of Arthur Sullivan's work.

When sorting out my sheet music the other week, I came across some things which he had written and had passed copies to me. I remembered reading in the school news that he had died prematurely some years ago, and a quick Google revealed the details and provided a little more of his life in an obituary from his Oxford college.

Tony Lemon, Fellow in Geography, remembers David Dew (Mansfield, 1972-78) in the 2006 Autumn/Winter edition of 'Mansfield', the college's magazine.

David Dew, who died of cancer in March 2003, spent seven years at Mansfield College, Oxford, reading three degrees — first degrees in Law and English and a postgraduate degree in English — before going on to train as a teacher. He entered into all his academic work, and everything he did outside it, with gusto.

David was a college institution: a fount of wisdom and a witty commentator who contributed to almost every aspect of college life. He was an intellectual whose appreciation of the classics once expressed itself in a Greek ballad that managed to include in its dramatis personae a significant proportion of both JCR and SCR members, carefully re-named but clearly recognisable! His passion for Victorian music was allowed to unleash itself upon a chapel congregation when one of his organ compositions was performed. With these distinctive interests he combined qualities one might less easily have guessed (reflecting determination as much as natural talent), rowing several times in successive College First Eights, some of which won blades.

David's whole teaching career was at Oundle School in Northamptonshire. His career choice was perfectly suited to his personality and talents. He was the quintessential public school master, devoted to the school and those in his care and taking a very active part in many aspects of school life, as he had at Mansfield. He was especially active in the school CCF (a school CCF prize now bears his name) and both the school's and the town's musical activities, taking part in four choirs including the local Gilbert and Sullivan Society: fittingly, Oundle marked the sad death of one of their most loyal and respected teachers with a performance of Verdi's Requiem.

Many generations of Mansfield students will remember David with affection and — if sensitive enough to his intellectual qualities or the barbs of his humour — some awe.

I looked at his compositions for the first time in 25 years, and while his settings of the canticles may be cliche-riddled, I rather enjoyed them. The copies I had were old photocopies and difficult to read. I therefore took the trouble to typeset and edit them, correcting some errors and tweaking moments of awkward underlay, and as I have been unable to find any details of his family, I present them here for posterity, and for anyone who might enjoy wallowing in unashamed Victoriana. If anyone does have contact details for his family, please let me know.

Tuesday, 7 April 2020

I have always preferred making my own ice cream (and love a home-made crème anglaise), but aspects of the method I use are possibly a little unconventional, as I use a chamber vacuum packer and water bath. As I always have to work out quantities, temperatures and times, I thought it was useful, if for no-one other than me, to make a note of my method.

Equipment Required (beyond basic kitchenware)

Liquidiser or blender

Chamber vacuum packer

Water bath

Ice cream machine

Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients (makes approximately 1 litre)

200ml double cream (straight from fridge)

200ml milk (straight from fridge)

150g sugar

4 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or 1 vanilla pod halved lengthways)

pinch of salt

Method

Heat the water bath up to 82°C.

Blend all of the ingredients together in the blender. If using a vanilla pod, do not blend this, but put straight into the bag for the next step.

Pour the mixture into a vacuum bag and seal. (It is important the mixture is as cold as possible to get a better vacuum on the bag, i.e., the contents will not boil so quickly under pressure.)

Cook in the water bath for 20 minutes.

Chill the cooked crème anglaise in an ice bath, and agitate the contents of the bag while it is cooling.

Pour the custard into your ice cream maker and follow the instructions to freeze to ice cream.

This method also works to make a perfect crème anglaise which can be kept in the fridge for up to a week. The creme anglaise can either be used as a sauce during this time, or turned into ice cream.

Blend all of the ingredients, except the chocolate together in the blender.

Pour the mixture into a vacuum bag and seal. (It is important the mixture is as cold as possible to get a better vacuum on the bag, i.e., the contents will not boil so quickly under pressure.)

Cook in the water bath for 20 minutes.

Chill the cooked custard to approximately 38°C using an ice bath, and agitate the contents of the bag while it it chilling.

Put the chocolate in a large (metal) bowl, and pour the warm custard over it stirring constantly to melt the chocolate. If the custard is too cold, gently warm the chocolate/custard mixture in a bain marie. However, make sure it does not get too hot, otherwise the chocolate will have a very gritty texture.

Pour the chocolate sauce into your ice cream maker and follow the instructions to freeze to ice cream.

This method also works to make a perfect chocolate sauce which can be served cold, warmed up gently in a bain marie, or turned into ice cream. It will keep in the fridge for up to a week.

For me, the water bath method of cooking the custard (whether or not it ultimately becomes ice cream) proves to be a life-saver in terms of avoiding that horrible moment when you scramble the yolks when trying to make it in a pan. Not only is this method much less labour-intensive, it is much more reliable. The simplicity of the method also means my 5 year old daughter is able to help me make her own chocolate ice cream without risk of error. She just needs to learn to separate eggs now...

Thursday, 26 September 2019

In these days of ﬁnancial stringency, even those primary
schools lucky enough to have their own music specialist often ﬁnd that exigencies
of timetabling preclude this specialist from covering more than a small number
of classes, while class teachers are often expected to cover their own class’s music.
In such cases, the music specialist is frequently called upon to act in an
advisory capacity to his colleagues. This article aims to provide for such
“advisory teachers” a simple music reading scheme which may easily be passed on
to their non-specialist colleagues.

Fundamental to all music skills is an awareness of the pulse
of music. Whenever small children move to music, they should be encouraged to
move steadily, in time with the pulse. This often occurs naturally, but some
children need help. “Use your hands to clap the sound of the soldiers’ marching
feet while we listen to this march”, is a useful ploy. Children should use only
two or three ﬁngers to clap, while the teacher watches — 30-odd lusty clappers
may be injurious to health!

At this point, depending on age, the children may be able to
ﬁnd and list other sounds and events which occur regularly. (Their pulses, a
clock, windscreen wipers, police siren, etc.)

Again, if children are old enough, they can be asked to
observe and classify differing speeds of such pulse-like sounds; the element of
regularity must be stressed. Pulse in music, as in the body, varies in speed
with the degree of activity of its subject. The slow movement of Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique may be described as “sleepy”,
as its pulse matches that of someone sleeping. The ﬁnal section of Rossini‘s William Tell overture, with its fast
pulse, is often used on television to accompany fast action (the Lone Ranger!) when the characters’
pulses would be racing.

The concept of rhythm can now be introduced, by clapping
ﬁrst the pulse of a known song, then its rhythm. Explain this by using part of
the class as a singing group whilst the rest clap the pulse; everyone then claps
“once for each word of the song”. It can then be shown that the two types of
clap- ping, though different, ﬁt together — the class may be divided again,
part clapping the rhythm, the remainder the pulse. The two concepts are very
important — it is worth spending a lot of time on this activity, using various
songs and other music heard in school.

At this stage we may begin on notation. I have devised a
system using “little men” cards. There are three types of card: No. 1 has on
the front a very simple (I am no artist!) drawing of a “matchstick man” running
from left to right and clapping; on the reverse of the card is a single
vertical line (the astute will recognise this as a crotchet stem). No. 2 shows
a similar matchstick man, but this time facing the front, with his arms raised
in the traditional Western “hands up” attitude, and clearly stationary; on the
reverse is a simpliﬁed version of a crotchet rest. Card No. 3 shows two smaller
clapping men sitting on a see-saw, and on the reverse a pair of vertical lines
connected by a cross-piece like a pair of goalposts (or, dare I suggest, quaver
stems?). A convenient size for these cards is about ¼ of an A4 sheet, and eight
of Card No. 1, with six of each of the others, are required. To display the
cards, I use two sheets of hardboard, each 17" long by 6" high,
hinged to allow the display of four or eight cards simultaneously. I normally
use small “Bulldog”-type clips to ﬁx the cards to the boards, but any method
may, of course, be used.

To proceed to the use of the cards: This is ﬁrst treated as
a game. Four No. 1 cards are clipped to a board and shown. Young children can
be asked to count the little men and describe what they are doing — clapping
and running.

“Which way are they running? . . . That’s the same way that
we read” — pointing — “beginning here. For each little man you clap once — how
many claps altogether?”

The teacher then counts a steady “One — two —” and then
points to the four cards in turn. The children respond — one hopes! — with four
evenly spaced claps. Don’t worry if some children don’t get the idea at ﬁrst, especially
if very small; the concept is akin to reading words, and we don’t expect that
to work immediately. As the children improve, one is sometimes tempted to use
different numbers of cards. Don’t — the group of four or eight has proved best
in practice.

Next, we introduce the “resting man” (Card 2). The children
are asked what he is doing. A variety of answers will probably result. The
important fact to establish is that he is not
clapping. The new card replaces the fourth of the original set; the class is
asked to respond at the appropriate point, by copying the action shown. (Note:
It is advisable to keep the hands close to the head when performing this action
— over-enthusiasm can cause neighbours’ noses to bleed!) After practice, the
“rest” as we can now call the picture, can be moved to other positions in the
set. A further group of four cards may now be introduced, and addition- al
rests used. Next, produce the “see-saw” symbol (No. 3). This replaces the
second card of a group, arranged as follows: 1 — 3 — 1 — 1. Explain that each
see-saw stands for two claps. The best way I have found to prevent a class producing
ﬁve evenly spaced claps is to get the children to say, in rhythm, “Clap — see- saw
- clap — clap”, later ﬁtting claps to their words.

From this point, the progression is natural. More complex
rhythms are introduced, and then, after reversal of the cards, in the same
order as their introduction, the use of abstract symbols. (Note: The “see-saw”
may be replaced by “goalposts” — the word also ﬁts the required rhythm.)

Children will often recognise the relationship between this
notation and “real” music. If they don’t, it can easily be shown by ad- ding
heads to the stems. The concept of melody can be introduced by playing (on one
note) the rhythm of Baa, baa, black sheep,
… If you then ask the children what you
have played, there are two possible responses — blank stares, or a correct
answer. Either response helps — the ﬁrst proves that a tune (explained as a
series of different notes) is necessary to make a “proper” piece of music. The
second can be shown to be only one of three correct answers — the rhythm also
ﬁts to All things bright and beautiful
(Royal Oak), and Let us with a gladsome
mind (Monkland). In each case the ﬁrst
line only will ﬁt.

The time names “tea” and “coffee” are now introduced (a
crotchet and a pair of quavers). The class can now sing, on one note, a simple
rhythm from the blackboard. The rhythm symbols (now with heads) should be drawn
with their heads below a single line. One of the notes should now be raised on to
the line. The children are told that this new note is one step higher — a
demonstration by the teacher follows, then they try. Much demonstration is
necessary at this stage (it is inﬁnitely better if the teacher has the conﬁdence
actually to sing the “exercises” rather than play them on piano or tuned
percussion — for the keen, but not particularly pitch- sensitive teacher it is
very possible to learn alongside the children).

Development is now along fairly obvious lines — increase the
number of notes by adding a “new note” above the line (use step-wise tunes ﬁrst
then leaps — ﬁrst from the note above the line to the “keynote” at the end);
further lines may be added, until we have a total of ﬁve; the treble clef may
be introduced at any stage, even with only a one-line stave, as giving the
starting point for the naming of notes (which the children will have seen on
pitched percussion instruments). Key signatures for simple keys will indicate
which is the “home” note; ledger lines can be used to extend even the two- or
three- line stave . . . and so on.

Rhythmically, more complex patterns may be introduced, and
new “drink names” devised by the children, with conventional notation being
introduced in parallel. Various pulse-patterns (duple triple, even compound
time) can be fairly easily assimilated if the children have a basic grasp of
notation, and the whole ﬁeld of musical notation can now be explored.

Tuesday, 28 May 2019

Although I had known about the horrors of drinking gin which William Hogarth presented in his 1751 print Gin Lane, I was not aware that it was paired with Beer Street which shows that beer is a much better alternative.

The two prints can be seen in the Internet Archive's scanned version of the 1875 volume, The Works of Hogarth: Gin Lane and Beer Street, but - as I have acquired copies of the prints - I have reproduced the text which accompanies them:

GIN LANE



The great
artist conjured up to his imagination, in the picture now before us, a horrible
and loathsome neighbourhood, the presiding genius of which is gin. No signs of health—no evidences of
gladness are there: disease—wretchedness—and misery everywhere meet the view.
All the houses, save one, are falling into ruins; and that one is the
dwelling of the pawnbroker, who drives a thriving trade in that dreadful
district. For gin is the deity
worshipped there: to procure gin no means are left untried; the shocking
predilection has fastened itself upon all the inhabitants; and every article of
domestic comfort—every household necessary—even to the smallest and meanest
portions of raiment, are carried to the pawnbroker, to obtain a few pence for
the purchase of gin. Were gin the elixir of life, instead of the bane and the
poison, men, women, and children could not display a greater eagerness to
obtain a dram. The inﬂuence of the ﬁre-water is everywhere apparent,—in the
ruined dwellings—the thousand proofs of dire penury and abject wretchedness—and
the sickly looks, emaciated frames, trembling limbs, pestiferous breath,
carious teeth, livid lips, sunken eyes, and diseased bodies of the people. The
countenance of the pawnbroker exhibits the grinding disposition which prompts
him to examine well the articles brought by the depraved creatures to his
establishment, lest he should lend too much upon them! The very children in
that neighbourhood are habituated from their infancy to imbibe the fatal venom.

We
behold in one place a boy fast asleep—completely stupeﬁed with the alcoholic
liquor, while over him creeps a snail—the emblem of the pawnbroker; and close
by is another wretched, neglected, lost child, ravenous with hunger, and
gnawing a bare bone, which a cur, equally the victim of famine in a district
where gin is bought in preference to food, is endeavouring to snatch from him.
Farther on a woman is seen pouring a dram down her infant’s throat—thus almost
from the moment of its birth, impregnating its frail constitution with the
seeds of disease! Even the very charity-children greedily swallow the burning ﬂuid
when they can obtain it—for the taste is acquired from their earliest infancy!
One of the lost girls is supplying her mother with the alcoholic
poison—thinking, poor ignorant creature! that she is performing a ﬁlial duty;
while the woman is already in such a ﬁlthy state of intoxication, that it is
found necessary to wheel her home in a barrow. There, where a house has fallen
to ruins, the corpse of a hanging suicide is disclosed: here, seated on the
steps of a gin vault, is an emaciated wretch, who has just expired through
atrophy; and on the same stairs is a drunken beast in female shape, whose legs
have broken out in loathsome ulcers, and who is taking snuﬀ, regardless of her
child slipping from her arms into the area of the gin vault. And it is gin—accursed
gin, that has driven the man to suicide—that has caused the dead wretch to
waste away into consumption and go oﬀ like the snuﬀ of a candle—and that has
degraded a being in the glorious form of woman to a level with the veriest
beasts crawling on the earth’s surface. It is gin, too, that has killed the
female whom we behold two men placing in a shell by order of the parish beadle;
while the orphan child of the deceased is about to be carried oﬀ by that oﬃcial
to the workhouse. Maddening—maddening, too, as well as death-dealing, is gin;
and we see a cripple ﬁghting, and a rabid man dancing with a pair of bellows on
his head and a spit in his hand. But—oh! frightful spectacle! The wretch,
driven furiously insane by gin, has spitted a living child whom its mother has
left alone while she visits the gin vault! The entire scene in hideous—horrible
to contemplate! Let us suppose that some good genius could arise, and, pointing
to that picture, thus address the drunkard:—

“Lost
and degraded wretch, wherefore rush thus madly on the road to ruin? Has the
vision before you no power to make you pause suddenly, and turn away aghast
from the loathsome spectacle? Or will you pursue your career of dissipation,
and become a conspicuous character in ginlane?
If so, learn somewhat of the histories of those, alive or dead, whom you behold
in your dream! And ﬁrst of the man whom you see through the opening in the
ruined wall, hanging to a beam. He was a barber, and an honest, industrious,
worthy man. He married a young woman, gifted with great beauty; and his entire
hope, his joy, his love, were centred in her. His toils were forgotten in the
cheering inﬂuence of domestic comfort; and two children blessed the union, at ﬁrst
so auspicious! But his wife became a drunkard; and by that fall, all her
poor—her loving—her unfortunate husband’s hopes were blasted: his house became
a desert—his children were parentless. In vain did they look to their
father—his heart was broken—his mind was in ruins. He had one consolation—an
old mother, on whom the protection of his children seemed to rest. Even that
was soon over. She could not survive the shame which had crept into her son’s
household: she never raised her head—she became hearsed in his misfortunes; and
he followed her funeral. Then he himself took to drinking gin, to drown his
cares; and the climax of human misery was seen in that once happy home. Wife,
parent, future prospects, happiness—all gone for ever! The mother to the
tomb—the wife to the gin-shop—the children to the workhouse—and the husband to
the halter and the beam!

“Next
behold that loathsome woman seated upon the steps, and hear of her! ﬁfteen
years ago, when she herself was ﬁfteen—for old and wretched as she seems, she
is but thirty now—she was one of the fairest of God’s creatures, and the pride
of honoured and doating parents. On a fatal evening she accompanied a young man
to a tea-garden; and there she partook of the accursed draught. Gin gave her up
as a victim to the seducer—and her parents died of broken hearts. A little
while—and behold, every evening— sometimes twice, sometimes thrice—that young
female entered the gin vault beneath those steps, to seek in stimulants the
artiﬁcial gaiety and excitement which were denied by nature and by conscience
to her crushed and ruined heart. Alas! poor girl—she was then only seventeen;
but the woes of ﬁfty winters were upon her mind! The cold blast of poverty— the
searching mists of shame—the storm of an agitated existence—the torrent of
reckless passions—the whirlwind of ever-varying emotions—and the eddies of
heart-rending feelings, had in two short years all vented their rage upon the
intellect, the soul, and the life of that hopeless girl! Oh! wherefore did so
young a creature parade the streets in a land of charity and of chivalry, where
the female form has held as a patent direct from the Divinity, bearing in its
chaste and charmed helplessness the assurance of its strength and the amulet of
its protection ? ’Twas gin that rendered the young creature thus abased—thus
degraded: ’tis gin that has stripped her of her loveliness—hurried her on
through all the varied phases of vice and infamy—until, prematurely old at the
age of thirty, you behold her in all the squalor of rags and the loathsomeness
of ugliness, seated in drunken apathy on those steps!

“And
now contemplate that wasted form, from which crazy tenement the soul has just
passed away: mark well that ghastly corpse seated at the bottom of the
steps—the steps leading to the palace
of Death! Ten times every
day, down those steps had lately crawled that living skeleton—clothed in
rags—emaciated—blear-eyed—toothless—haggard in countenance, trembling in limbs,
shaking in his head, and stammering in his voice. He was but forty years old
this day—and looked sixty; and he might still be walking erect, in the prime of
life—happy—lively—robust—and hale, had not his whole life been devoted to gin.
And yet this besotted wretch persisted to the last in declaring that drink
never injured him—that it even did him good—and that he required it. Not
injured him!—it consumed his property—it reduced him to rags—it heaped
loathsome diseases of all kinds upon him—it made his bones visible through his
skin—it pulled out his teeth—it dimmed the ﬁre of his eyes—and it dug his grave
at the age of forty!

“Those—those,
wretched being, are the eﬀects of gin! It is strong drink that destroys
domestic peace, ruins female virtue, conducts the tradesman to ruin, opens the
gates of the mad-house, throws chains around the criminal, inspires the wicked
with courage to perpetrate crime, establishes workhouses, gilds the sign of the
pawnbroker’s shop, and places a bar across the portals of the house of God.
From the lips of the gin-glass have myriads drunk damnation: gin is the cause
of blows, of strife, of domestic misery, of disease, of death! The anguish of
neglected wives—the piteous cries of children famishing through want been of
food—the last prayer of the malefactor upon the gibbet—the anathema of the felon
whose chains clank in the prison-yard—the woes of an existence lingered out in
the workhouse—the howls of lunatics—the dying murmurs of the suicide—the
remorseful whisperings of the lost girl’s conscience—the wounds, the tears, the
oaths, the shrieks, the screams, the wails,—all, all the tokens of human misery
which now exist before you, and which have converted yon once thriving
neighbourhood into a charnel-house of horrors—all, everything there depicted,
may be traced to gin!”

BEER STREET



The following
description of this plate is somewhat abridged from the commentator Trussler’s
account:—“We observe in the admirable plate before us, a complete cessation
from all labour, and all parties enjoying themselves with a refreshing draught
of the cheering liquor, beer. On the left side of the picture, we perceive a
group of jolly taproom politicians, a butcher, a drayman, and a cooper. The
drayman is evidently whispering soft things into the not-unwilling ear of a
servant-maid, who seems to be all attention to what he is saying; a fact which
is plainly apparent from the appearance of her eyes and hands, and the general
disposition of her ﬁgure. From the house-door key in her hands she seems to
have come out of some neighbouring house for a tankard of beer which the family
is waiting for, and while her ﬁgure admirably ﬁlls in the foreground of the
picture, her loitering by the way gives the artist an opportunity of showing up
the idleness of the common order of servants, who neglect their duty and waste
their employer’s time in proﬁtless gossiping. The butcher is splitting his
sides with laughter to see the girl so easily imposed on, and the cooper behind
with a pipe in his mouth, a full pot in one hand, and a shoulder of mutton in
the other, plainly shows that where good eating and drinking abound, there true
happiness and jollity will be found also. On the right of the picture, is a
city-porter who has just set down his load and is recruiting his strength with
a draught of the refreshing beverage. The artist has humorously made the porter’s
load to consist of trashy books on their way to the trunkmaker’s to be sold for
waste paper. In the middle of the plate are seen two ﬁsh-women loaded with
British herrings. Behind are some paviours at work; further back is a lady of
quality in a sedan-chair going to Court; the ﬂag is displayed on the steeple in
the distance, denoting a royal birth-day; so corpulent is she, that her
chairmen are not able to carry her, without the refreshing stimulus of a pot of
porter on the way. Our author has not forgotten to ridicule the enormous size
of the hoop in use in those days, which, when pulled up on each side closely
resembled the wheels of a carriage. We next notice on the steps of a ladder a
painter, ragged but happy, painting the sign of the Barley Mow, and at the top
of a house a tailor’s work-shop, whose men within seem to partake of the
general joy; the bricklayers on the roof of the next house, are no whit
behindhand in expressing the most lively satisfaction at the arrival of the
expected beer. This house is an ale house, the landlord of which is supposed to
be repairing it, in opposition to his neighbour, Nicholas Pinch, the
pawnbroker, who ﬁnds it hard to live for want of trade; the man’s house appears
decayed, ready to fall in over his head, symptoms well marked by the sign,
props, and rat-trap in the chamber; he is seen taking in a half-pint of beer
through a hole in his door, not daring to open it, showing that such
professions thrive only on the miseries of others, but starve when the public
prospers. The general design of this print is to expose the pernicious custom
of gin-drinking, whose awful eﬀects are vividly depicted in the plate of Gin Lane, and to
show mankind that, if they must have recourse to strong liquors, beer is by far
the best and most wholesome stimulus to indulge in.”

Early
in the year , the following advertisement was issued:—“On Friday next will
be published, price one shilling each, Two large Prints, designed and etched by
Mr. Hogarth, called Beer-street and Gin-lane. A number will be printed in a
better manner for the curious at s. d. each. And on Thursday following will
be published Four Prints on the subject of Cruelty. Price and size the same. n.b. As the subjects of these Prints are
calculated to reform some reigning vices peculiar to the lower class of people,
in hopes to render them of more extensive use, the author has published them in
the cheapest manner possible. To be had at the Golden Head in Leicester-Fields,
where may be had all his other Works.”

The
following verses under these two Prints were written by the Reverend James
Townley:

BEER STREET

Beer, happy product of our Isle

Can
sinewy strength impart,

And, wearied with fatigue and toil,

Can
cheer each manly heart.

Labour and Art, upheld by thee,

Successfully
advance;

We quaﬀ thy balmy juice with glee,

And
Water leave to France.

Genius of Health, thy grateful taste

Rivals
the cup of Jove,

And warms each English generous breast

With
Liberty and
Love.

GIN
LANE

Gin, cursed ﬁend! with fury fraught,.

Makes
human race a prey;

It enters by a deadly draught,

And
steals our life away.

Virtue and Truth, driv’n to despair,

Its
rage compels to ﬂy;

But cherishes, with hellish care,

Theft,
Murder, Perjury.

Damn’d cup! that on the vitals preys,

That
liquid lire contains,

Which madness to the heart conveys,

And
rolls it through the veins.

“It is probable,” says a writer of the
period, “that Hogarth received the ﬁrst idea for these two Prints from a pair
of others by Peter Breugel which, exhibit a contrast of a similar kind. The one
is entitled La grasse
Cuisine (‘ the fat Kitchen’): the other La maigre Cuisine (‘the
meagre Kitchen’). In the ﬁrst, all the personages are well-fed and plump; in
the second, they are starved and slender. The latter of them also exhibits the ﬁgures
of an emaciated mother and child, sitting on a straw mat on the ground, whom I
never saw without thinking on the female, &c., in Gin Lane. In Hogarth, the fat English
blacksmith is insulting the gaunt Frenchman; and in Breugel, the plump cook is
kicking the lean one out of doors.”

Of their intentions, Hogarth gives the
following account:—“When these two Prints were designed and engraved, the
dreadful consequence of gin-drinking appeared in every street. In Gin-lane,
every circumstance of its horrid eﬀects is brought to view in terrorum.
Idleness, poverty, misery, and distress, which drive even to madness and death,
are the only objects that are to be seen: and not a house in tolerable
condition but the Pawnbroker’s and Gin-shop. Beer-street, its companion, was
given as a contrast; where that invigorating liquor is recommended, in order to
drive the other out of vogue. Here all is joyous, and thriving industry and
jollity go hand in hand. In this happy place the Pawnbroker’s is the only house
going to ruin; and even the small quantity of porter that he can procure is
taken in at the wicket, for fear of farther distress.”

The opinion which Hogarth entertained
of the writings of Dr. Hill, may be discovered in his Beer Street, where Hill’s critique upon
the Royal Society is put into a basket directed to the Trunkmaker, in St. Paul’s Churchyard.

Having just completed the process (there was a delay in starting as I was working towards a minimum Gold spend), I discovered that there were actually 34,000 Avios available. The following steps give the process for maximising this collection opportunity.

The process demands a couple with the same address to be working on this together. For the sake of argument, I have called them Rapunzel and Flynn to help get through this tangled process.

Both Rapunzel and Flynn need to sign up for free Starwood Preferred Guest membership at www.starwoodhotels.com. Both accounts need to have the same home address. Make a note of the membership numbers as they are needed later.

Rapunzel needs to sign up for an American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card. Following this referral link earns an extra 1,000 SPG points when the minimum spend is hit. If she just signs up via the American Express website directly, she will miss out on this 1,000 points. As part of the application process, she will need to enter her SPG membership number. There is a £75 annual fee for this card which is refunded pro rata when it is cancelled.

When Rapunzel's card arrives, she needs to spend £1,000 within the first 90 days. For this she earns the 1,000 points on the spend, and a bonus 10,000 for spending £1,000 within 90 days. (I use a combination of billhop and SumUp to ensure that the spend is as close to £1,000 as possible so as not to waste any odd points.)

While she is spending her £1,000, Rapunzel needs to generate a referral code for Flynn via her online account.

Flynn should then apply for his SPG card via the link he has received. Rapunzel will earn 5,000 points for having referred him.

When Flynn's card arrives, he needs to spend £1,000 within the first 90 days. For this he earns the 1,000 points on the spend, and a bonus 10,000 for spending £1,000 within 90 days. Having been referred by Rapunzel, he also earns an additional bonus 1,000 points on the spend.

When Rapunzel's 17,000 points have transferred to her SPG account and she has paid off her bill (which will have included the annual fee), she needs to cancel her Amex SPG card.

When Flynn's 12,000 points have been transferred to his SPG account and he has paid off her bill (which will have included the annual fee), he needs to cancel his Amex SPG card.

Flynn will then need to visit 'Pass the Starpoints, please' link when signed into his SPG account and transfer his 12,000 SPG points to Rapunzel's account.

Finally, Rapunzel will need to transfer the combined 29,000 SPG points to her BA account via 'Transfer AirMiles' link when signed into her SPG account. As she is transferring over 20,000 points, she is awarded a bonus 5,000 Avios.

When you cancel an American Express card, you will receive a final statement which will have a credit balance for the pro rata refund of the annual fee. When this arrives, you will need to contact American Express and they will either arrange this to be returned to a bank account or credited to the balance of any other American Express card you may hold.

Having cancelled the Amex SPG cards, there is a minimum wait of six months from the date of cancellation before you will be entitled to earn any sign up bonuses on the cards again.

The original HfP post includes various other ways in which to use the amassed SPG points, but for Avios collectors, these are the 10 steps.

Tuesday, 15 August 2017

A couple of years ago, I discovered that ZigZag Education offers the opportunity for people to review their resources before publication through their author portal. Reviewers earn a voucher for their reviews which can be redeemed against ZigZag's resources. Over the past couple of years, I have reviewed several resources and was able to buy some £200-worth of resources for my department last term.

As well as helping to ensure that a largish educational publisher is selling quality resources, I think this is a useful CPD opportunity for teachers, and I have encouraged my staff to sign up to review material.

Below are two reviews (the questions are predefined) which I have written for ZigZag: I purchased the A-Level Language one for the department, and I confess I found some useful ideas in the GCSE Literature one which I duly borrowed, but careful budgeting meant I could not justify buying it to supplement the work staff had already put into our own lesson planning and resources.

The link in the review title will take you to the resource's page on ZigZag. I do not earn any commission from any sales, but I did receive a voucher and a box of chocolates for republishing my reviews here!

Note on the formatting: This review was based on a draft of the resource that had not yet been formatted. Before publication, it was professionally formatted by one of our designers.

1.On the whole what did you think about this resource?

This is a really good resource which provides a really useful teaching and revision tool. The content is varied and meets the requirements of the specification and provides scope for students to develop their thinking and research beyond the specification if they want.

2.What you particularly like/dislike about this resource?

The inclusion of annotated texts and suggested answers is always really helpful - both for teachers and students! - and the section on comparisons looks as if it would work really well to allow students to develop their responses.

3.How this resource enhances learning?

The resource provides unseen texts which can be used for both teaching and revision and supplements exisiting material well. The focus on spoken texts is nice as text books often contain just a single example. The inclusion of a glossary and the theories meets the demands of the specification well.

4.Comments on presentation and layout?

The transcripts could be presented in the centre of the page to maximise space around them for annotation. It would be nice not to have the panel on the right of every page (especially for the notes pages) as it's only relevant for the annotated transcripts.

5.Specification and level reviewer teaches (e.g. AQA A AS/A2)

AQA A-Level Language

6.How does the resource match and interpret this specification?

This meets the demands of both the AS and A-Level AQA specification well. The questions match the AO requirements and the advice and information is what AQA demand.

7.Suggestions for improving this resource?

Beyond the tidying up that will take place before publication, I don't think there is anything particular which would stop this being used today. It might be nice to include a couple of full responses to the question (not just the 'short' questions) to allow students to compare essays against their own work to allow them to self/peer assess and become more critical of their own work.

8.Would you purchase this resource?

Yes.

...and having used it, I can confirm the material I used did work well with a Year 12 group, and the remaining material will be revisted in Year 13 as revision.

Note on the formatting: this review was based on a draft of the resource that had not yet been formatted. Before publication, it was be professionally formatted by one of our designers.

1.On the whole what did you think about this resource?

Overall, I was very impressed with the content of this pack: there is a great deal of useful and useable material.

2.What you particularly like/dislike about this resource?

I particularly liked the depth of detail about each of the poems, the suggested answers, the inclusion of suggested pairings and the sample answers. There is nothing to dislike.

3.How this resource enhances learning?

The resource is initially useful to teachers who may be unfamiliar with some of the poems in the anthology. To students it would be allow self-directed study, but at GCSE is possibly more likely to be used as a revision tool or the fill in blanks from missed lessons.

4.Comments on presentation and layout?

It is very text heavy: even breaking up the opening analyses with the inclusion of poets' images would be welcome.

5.Specification and level reviewer teaches (e.g. AQA A AS/A2)

AQA English Language and English Literature at both GCSE and A-Level.

6.How does the resource match and interpret this specification?

The resource matches the new specification really well and is closely focused on the material that AQA has released so far. This is a great feature in its favour.

7.Suggestions for improving this resource?

Would it be possible to include copies of the poems in the pack? This would make it a little more useful as a whole to save having to have the anthology too. Another very small suggestion would be to include the questions on the suggested answers page for each poem to save refering back. Could blank(er) copies of the linking mindmaps be included to use as worksheets so students could work on creating the pairings - and reasons for pairings - themselves?

8.Would you purchase this resource?

Yes

9.Other comments?

Thank you for a really useful resource which will certainly support the first teaching of a new specification.

Thursday, 1 June 2017

My daughter recently demonstrated a penchant for Nakd bars to replace her toddler snacks. With their natural ingredients, we were happy with this, but the price made this a prohibitively expensive snack. However, I also thought that this meant they should be easy to make at home. I therefore consulted the ingredients lists, did a couple of calculations to turn percentages in weights and googled a little to see what other people's experiences with homemade nakdness was. This - very simple - recipe is the result.

Ingredients

180g Medjool dates (these will need to be pitted, but are juicier than 'standard' dates)

180g cashew nuts

65g raisins

25g 70% chocolate

teaspoonful of vanilla extract

Method

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and turn it on. The mixture will look quite dry and seem to thump a lot as it is processed, but leave the machine running and eventually it should come together in a solid ball. (This did take a few minutes, and my ancient food processor did start getting quite warm as the final mixture is quite stiff.)

Line a 1lb loaf tin with cling film. (There is time to do this while the food processor is processing.)

Put the mixture into the lined loaf tin and press down to form a flattened rectangle. (I found another loaf tin pressed down on the mixture was quite helpful with this.)

Fold the cling film over the top of the mixture and put in the fridge overnight to chill.

Unwrap the slab of fruity goodness and slice it into 12 (or fewer if you like larger portions) bars. I wrapped each bar in a square of greaseproof paper and twisted the ends. These then seem to keep quite happily in the fridge for a couple of weeks at least. (They were all eaten by this time, so they may last longer if you exercise greater self-control.)

I am confident that any of the other flavours can be made very simply by adapting the ingredients based on the percentages printed on the official products' wrappers. My choice of 180g for the dates was simply based on the packet size sold in the supermarket.